#FFCGN

Beyond This Place

Documentary | CHE, USA 2009 | 88' | Subtitled German

All the criticism his son has for him rolls off of aging hippie Cloud Rock La Belle, because: every kid picks his parents for himself, and that’s karma, he claims. Cloud Rock’s life consists of taking drugs, meditating, and riding his bicycle. He has been high for 40 years straight – and is proud of it. He never took care of his son Kaleo. That would have infringed too much on the one thing that means most to him in life: his freedom. Kaleo La Belle has made a documentary about the difficult relationship between himself and his father. As the two are on a bike tour to Mount St. Helen, the son tries to get closer to his father, and attempts to understand why Cloud has left him on his own all his life. »I love you, even if you are straight,« Cloud Rock once says to Kaleo – his smile does not tell how serious he is about it. BEYOND THIS PLACE is less a contribution to the perennial discussion about the influence of the »68ers,« i.e. those who experienced and supported the social upheaval of the late 1960s, on society, than it is the story of an extreme, but all the more fascinating singular case. The film’s beautifully melancholic soundtrack was created by indie star Sufjan Stevens.